Taken every three years by 15-year-olds, the Pisa examinations have become one of the most influential international benchmarks for education standards.

When it comes to teaching very young children, the culture is very different, according to Chang Si of Hebei Early Education Institute.

“Children come to kindergarten at 07:30 and stay there until 17:30,” she said.

“Our institute co-operates with many kindergartens, and we want to be trained in the Early Years course so we can train other teachers and show the methods to parents.”

Ms Fitzpatrick said some of its publications would be translated, and staff from Early Years would travel to China next week “to assess training needs and then we plan a delivery of training, both face-to-face and online”.

“We ploughed this furrow on our own, but a consulate in Belfast would ease the development of other relationships for us in China,” she said.

“We are indebted to Invest NI for the support we have received over the last two years, but I think the arrival of a Chinese consulate in Belfast will further open up the Chinese market for ourselves.”